The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-08-18
NEW YORK TENEMETNS.
Details of a Reporters Tour with
Health Inspector.

Details of a Reporters Tour with a
Health Inspector.
There is quietly going forward in
New York during these torrid summer
days, says The Commercial advertiser,
a work of the utmost Importance, not
only to those who are directly benefited
but to every inhabitant of Manhatten
island. 1t is the work of corps of
fifty physicians, appointed by the board
of health to inspect tenement houses.
BY them every tenement in the city is
being visited. To the wretched poor,
huddled together in airless dim rooms
in the most crowed parts of this city.
they carry comfort and relief They
speak 70 them words of kindness, pre-
scribe for the sick, explain the rudi-
mentary hygienic principles. and fur
nish wearied mothers and their baby
offspring with the means of enjoying
an ocean ride, or possibly several days
of rest and change at some seaside
sanitarium. Should the physicians find
any of the houses which they inspect
in such condition as to be detrimental
'totbb health of its occupants, the case
is reported, and the landlord is at once
notified that the tenement must be re-
paired or vacated. The labors of these
inspectors are not only charity, but a
safeguard against the breeding and
spreading of contagious diseases, for
the origin of infectious maladies can
almost invariably be traced to the
Squalid tenement-house districts.
No. Ill Mulberry street may be taken
rs sample of the typical tenement
house. 1t is really two houses, placed
one behind the other. and separated by
an open space or court. This court is
paved with flags tones and is frequent
cd at all hours of the day by the ten
ants of both houses. Here the women
do their washing and gossip. Tubs and
dirty water lying in pools are its chief
character .stics. Above are stretched
miles of clothesline, forming network
which would do credit to metropolitan
telegraph company. These lines are
fastended to the ratings and bars of
rusty iron balconies, which serve as a
receptacle for every conceivable variety
of household goods. Each tenement
front and rear-contains five stories.
Each story furnishes accommodations
for four families. Each suite of apart
ments consists of three rooms. Two of
these rooms are dark and are not pro-
vided with any direct means of ventila-
ton. The third. which is used as
kitchen, dining-room, living-room and
often as bedroom besides, is usually
provided with two windows and on an
average twelve or fourteen feet square.
The small, dark, poorly
suites are inhabited by families num-
bering from six up. Thus each tene-
ment is made to shelter some thirty or
forty families, or more than two hund-
red persons. The halls are dark and
dirty. The stairs are rickety and the
ratings insecure.
The tenants. for the most part,
bronzed-faced Italians, lent certain
picturesqueness to the scene in spite of
the surroundings. They stared at the
doctor at first, but when he explained
his mission took no further notice of
him, except possibly two or three who
followed him from door to door. He
was treated with courtesy and respect.
Chairs were frequently pushed toward
him. When child was sick the moth
er placed it in his hands without re-
luctance, and thanked him with her
eyes, if not with her lips, for his help.
As would be surmised, the rooms
were filthy and crowded. The space in
each of the two dark apartments was
almost entirely occupied by one, two
or three beds, as the case might be,
which stood some five feet from the
floor, supported by wooden horses.
such as are used by carpenters. The
stoves were rusty, and seemed in im-
mediate danger of falling to pieces.
The furniture was broken. The odor
was offensive. Babies. smiling. squall-
ing. healthy, sickly, dressed. and un-
dressed, heavily-kilted women filled
the rooms But comparatively few
men were seen. For the most part the
women asserted that they and their
children were perfectly well.
On the second floor of the front part
of the house in room, fairly sitting
with heat, lay little girl, perhaps 10
years old. Her face was paid and her
eyes lstless. Although the child was
already under treatment, the mother
was anxious for the doctor to examine
it. This the Inspector did, looked at
the medicine which had been prescribed
and told the parents to continue its
use.
The doctor found the house In such
filthy condition that he felt constrain-
ed to hunt up its lesse, who he found
to be the proprietor of saloon opposite.
When the inspector told him that the
tenements must be cleaned at once, he
insisted that they were cleaned in May